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David Wheeler's Page

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What’s your favorite hangout downtown?

Lake Eola

What juicy tidbit can you share about your favorite downtown memory?

I loved living high above Lake Eola Park with a spectacular view of the city from my apartment in the old Plaza Hotel -- formerly the Cherry Plaza Hotel. For those in pursuit of trivia -- the Cherry Plaza Hotel was where Walt Disney announced his plans to build Disney World here in Central Florida.The Post Properties are nice, but there’s nothing like the old Plaza, Lee’s Lakeside and a cold drink downstairs in her tavern. I miss Lee, she was a grand lady.

What brings you to THE SLICE?

I am the Immediate Past Chairman of the Downtown Arts District Board, creator and administrator of the OrlandoSlice.com website. I founded the Young Artists Group for the Arts District in 2010. And now you know the rest of the story... Let me know if you need any help with the site.

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Hi David ... after an absence that took me in other arts directions, I am BACK with Orlando Slice with a new email, new info and a new book I have just published. I had changed my email and lost my old password (!) so I opened a new account with my same name.

Do you suggest I delete my old account and start over, or can I import some of my info from my old account? (My new account is already set up and functioning.) I still know many of the friends I had accumulated with my old account ... yourself included. Any advice will be appreciated, of course! Hope all is well with you! Cheers and Best Regards!

Hi David ... I remember the Cherry Plaza from the early 1960s, when I spent some nights sleeping in Lake Eola Park --- after running out of money to stay at (what I think was a YMCA or hotel at the site and building that now houses the Panera Bread Company at the north east corner of Lake Eola). I was a college student and had a bus ticket home to Ohio, but didn't want to go home yet. Being an avid reader of Jack Kerouac's books, I was no stranger to backpacking and sleeping in parks and had done the same at Lummus Park in Miami Beach. My memory is fuzzy with details from 50 years ago, but Lake Eola holds many fond memories for me, (as it does for you!) I was a rather social young guy, so I met and talked with many Cherry Plaza people around that time. Years later, in the 1980s, I had an aunt who also lived at the Cherry Plaza (probably then called 'The Plaza' (?) I was also, in those days, fascinated with the Confederate Soldier statue at the east end of the lake and did an art project at my college in Ohio based on it. Thanks for sharing your memories ... (you could likely fill in some of the details of my sometimes faulty 'recall'). Having had a fond relationship with central Florida, I retired from my art director career to Orlando just a few weeks ago.

David Wheeler's Blog

Hello friends and family of Leena Buchy. We hope you can join us for this special occasion to celebrate Leena's life. The evening is being hosted and created by Leena's sister, Lisa Herbst and one of Leena's dearest friends, Cassy King.

You may have heard that the new Trump Administration and Congress want to end funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. The Congress will swiftly pass their biggest legislative changes in the first 7 to 9 months of the year. We need to act now.

The Arts Action Fund has developed a nationwide petition to help convince President Trump to support the arts by taking specific pro-arts actions within his Administration.